Phoenix Creations By Lin: Basic T-Shirt Tote Bag

Many of us have way more t-shirts than we will probably ever get to wear. I know I do. Shirts people have given me, shirts I bought because it had a nice design/fabric and shirts from events I have attended. At this point, I probably have over 20 t-shirts in my drawer but only a handful get worn. It's not that I don't like all the shirts it's just that I tend to pull from the top of the stack every time. This means, whatever I wore, laundered and put away last will get pulled out again.

If, for whatever reason, you do not have extra t-shirts, or you just can't put the scissors to them, you could do this with any shirt that is not too stretchy. Fabrics with a lot of stretch will not hold up well for a tote bag, unless you line it with non-stretchy fabric. (This article does not cover how to line a bag...that will be for another day.)

So, on to the fun...

Tools and materials you will need

Scissors

Thread

T-shirt - clean, dry and as unwrinkled as possible

Sewing Machine

Pins and/or clips

Binding tape - optional

Tape measure

Steps

Marking and Cutting

Mark where collar and sleeves will be cut.

The bag I am making here will have handles that are the height of the armholes of the original shirt. This will allow me to make use of the sleeve seams for more stability. (Why reinvent the wheel, right?)

Be careful that you are not cutting into the design on either side before you actually do the cutting!

Be sure to leave the sleeve seams on the part that will be the bag.

Mark the cut line 1/2" from seam. Cut where marked.

This will leave you with a garment much like a tank top. The "shoulders" that are left will become the bag handles.

If the neck opening is rather small for a bag, you could cut it into a deeper u or v shape.

Shirt with collar and sleeves removed.

Finishing cut seams

You have a few choices of how to finish the raw edges...

A single fold will leave the raw edges showing on the inside but the bag would be perfectly usable. (I've done this method when I just wanted a bag for shopping and do not need it to be show ready.)

After sewing the edge, clip close to the seam for a more finished look.

A double fold will give you a more finished look. If it is difficult for you to get the material to double fold, you could single fold, sew and then repeat.

You could also use binding tape (or other fabric) to give the edge a clean look. This method may also give more stability to the bag opening. T-shirts tend to be stretchy and a binding tape will prevent the opening from stretching at all.

A regular straight stitch is what is most commonly used, but there are various stitches on even the most basic sewing machines that could be used to give the edges a different look also.

Using a zigzag stitch, you could just stitch over the raw edge.

For my bag, I have used binding tape method on the collar/bag opening and folded seams for the armhole/handle openings. I chose not to use the zigzag because it tends to leave the fabric in a wavy state.

Finishing the collar area (bag opening)

The collar area will be the bag opening. Be sure the size of the opening you have cut will be sufficient to use the bag. If needed, cut it in a deeper u or v shape.

Here I have cut the front down a bit more to enlarge the opening.

The binding tape used here is double folded. Open the fold and pin or clip tape in place at collar edge.

Overlap the ends of the tape where they meet. This picture shows the tape overlapped a little more than needed. The exact amount of overlap doesn't matter too much.

Attach the binding tape to the outside of the opening and sew close to the top edge.

Most machines will allow for the needle to be moved right or left. I find it easier to move the needle to the right which allows as much material as possible under the presser foot.

Next, fold the binding tape to the inside of the bag and sew it as close to the edge as possible. This would be the edge of the binding tape that is furthest away from the bag opening as shown in the image on the right below.

Finish up the bag opening with another line of sewing just at the opening edge. This is not necessary, but gives the bag a little more finished look, in my opinion.

Finishing the sleeve area (handle opening)

You can choose any of the finishing methods you would like for these openings. Since the openings are not as big as the collar area, I chose not to use the binding tape. Instead I did one side as the single fold and the other as the double fold - basically, so I would have pictures for this page! 😄

What we have at this point is a tank top....You could stop here and wear it (I've done this!) or continue.

Adding optional pocket(s)

At this point, you could add one or more pockets to the front, back, inside or outside.

Before adding pockets, it is best to decide how long the bag should be, so you know the correct placement of the pocket(s). If you are shortening the bag, and decide to cut the extra off now, be sure to leave an extra inch beyond the finished length.

For the pockets, I am using the sleeve material that we cut off.

with the sleeve folded in half - with underarm seam on right - you can see the material slopes quite a bit. I marked and cut about 2 1/2 - 3 inches from the seam on the right. (I will be using the material on the left.)

Material from both sleeves were trimmed to roughly squared when folded in half. (In the below picture, the left of each piece is the fold and the right side is where I just cut them.)

These 2 pieces will be sewn together to form a larger pocket front. When sewing these together, put the hemmed sides to the top and bottom. (These hems are from the original sleeve.)

Pin and sew these 2 pieces together.

Trim the fabric close to the seam

Top stitch so both pieces of the seam are facing same way.

Pin pocket in place. Fold left and right sides under. (I find about a 1/2 folded under works well.)

Sew around the pocket, leaving top open. I like to sew 2 lines around for extra holding power, but this is your option.

Sewing the pocket on can be tricky since the front and back of the bag is fully attached. Make sure you are going slow and checking that only a single layer of the bag is being sewn with the pocket.

Closing the bottom up

The way you choose to sew the bottom will affect the placement of the handles. There are two basic ways to close off the bottom of the bag:

with sides of t-shirt meeting in the middle. This would put the handled in the middle of the front and back instead of at the sides.

straight across, side seam to side seam - this is the way I have chose for this bag.

By this point, if you wanted to shorten the bag, you might have already cut off the extra material from the bottom. If not, now is the time to do it.

Determine where you want to sew your bottom seam and mark it.

I use chalk, but a pen, marker of pencil will also work....just be sure whatever you use doesn't show through to the outside of the fabric. If it is dark, just sew slightly inside the line so it doesn't show through the fabric.

For this project, I decided to shorten it by about 5 inches. I measured up from the bottom hem of the shirt/bag in a few places and marked the spots.

Draw the line all the way across the bottom of the bag. You could just sew this line all the way across and have a flat bag, or you could follow the next steps to square up the corners of the bag.

The line you draw should be even from the edge all the way across. In this picture, it looks like my line is crooked, but in reality, my pocket was put on slanted and the drawn line is straight. (Yes, I do this sometimes. But it's just a grocery bag for me so I won't take the time to remove the pocket and try again.)